Review: 2010 Chevrolet Equinox -- this greatly improved small SUV is now a class leader

July 5, 5:28 PMDC Car ExaminerBrady Holt

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The 2010 Chevrolet Equinox is roomy, comfortable, and quiet. Its new redesign has catapulted it to a front-runner in its class.
See more pictures of the new Equinox below the article in today's slideshow. 

Following the near-total death of the midsize station wagon in the United States – the Subaru Outback is the only survivor south of $25,000 – the compact SUV has had to pick up the slack for someone looking for added practicality from a moderately priced family car. The smallest SUVs are still mostly built from compact cars, but they’ve grown to offer roomy front and rear seats in addition to a spacious cargo hold. 

But test drives of seven popular compact SUVs showed that while they were able to match family-sedan interior comfort and safety without embarrassing themselves with their fuel consumptions, few had the level of refinement of even a decent midsize sedan. Only the Toyota RAV4 – which won the comparison – had come close. 

That was in April. Since then, Chevrolet has introduced a redesigned version of its Equinox as a 2010 model, featuring a new four-cylinder engine (the previous model was V6-only) with class-leading gas mileage and class-leading refinement. 

The Equinox is half a size bigger than the RAV4 – which is already larger than most compact SUVs. This extra size, combined with a suspension that’s tuned for a very smooth ride, does limit the Equinox’s cornering ability. Agility is a RAV4 strong point, but while the Equinox is far from clumsy, the steering is too light and not very quick, and this SUV never feels compact. Its 20-foot turning radius, well over 2 feet wider than the RAV4, is another drawback to this SUV's bulk. 

But despite its substantial heft – the Equinox is some 500 pounds heavier than the RAV4 – this Chevrolet manages to blow away even some compact cars for its gas mileage with EPA ratings of 22 miles per gallon in the city and 32 on the highway with its standard 2.4-liter 4-cylinder engine and 6-speed automatic. (An optional V6 and the optional all-wheel-drive each cut that mileage down.) The Toyota RAV4 4-cylinder front-wheel-drive, the next best, is rated for 24 miles per gallon in mixed driving against the Equinox's 26. 

That mileage relies on the Equinox’s “eco mode,” which cuts acceleration response in favor of fuel savings but seems to work seamlessly for light-footed drivers. (Eco mode is activated by a button near the shifter.) Indeed, driving gently in the standard mode several times left the automatic transmission a gear too high; fortunately, the engine is quiet and the shifting smooth, so you almost don’t notice the transmission getting it wrong. (The Equinox is quieter than any other mainstream 4-cylinder SUV; only the RAV4 and the Suzuki Grand Vitara approach it, despite some excess highway wind noise. The V6-only Hyundai Santa Fe is still the luxury car of its class, however, and the Kia Rondo compact station wagon is close.)

However, despite the Equinox’s size, its listed cargo capacity doesn’t match the RAV4 or several other smaller SUVs. The Chevrolet’s cargo hold certainly looks bigger, and you need to lean far in to reach the levers to fold down the rear seat, so it’s not clear where the space is lost. The rear seat adjusts fore and aft to provide more cargo space behind it, if needed, but there certainly appears to be more space than the 31.4 cubic feet specification. (The RAV4 has five cubes more.) 

Folding the 60-40 split rear seat is easy, despite the extra reach, but the seatback doesn’t lie anywhere near flat. Panels at least keep them flush with the cargo floor, but the folded seats lie at a steep angle. The Equinox offers 63.7 cubic feet of total cargo capacity behind the front seats, which is even lower compared to RAV4 et al, but once again it provides the appearance of more usable space than those competitors. 

The Equinox’s seats are better padded than the RAV4’s in the front and rear, however – a huge step up from the rock-hard front seats in the outgoing 2009 Equinox – but the new front cushions could still be longer. The cloth seats have grippy mesh inserts that are supposed to help them breathe better in hot weather, but some may find their black-and-white color scheme off-putting. (The salesman says black-on-gray is more subdued, but he had no such cars in stock; online photos are unclear.) 

See photos of the seats and dash below the article in today's slideshow

Less subjective is the interior’s quality. The seat material may be less than lovely, but the cloth feels nice. The stylish dash, on the other hand, is constructed with hard, flimsy, and overall cheap-feeling plastics. Materials look great in pictures, look fine when you see them through the open car door, and even look acceptable when you’re sitting in the car, but a closer look or a touch makes the Equinox feel cheap. Uneven panel gaps were also present in abundance. 

Also, dashboard ergonomics took a page from the Honda Accord school of design – the latest model, not the elegant simplicity that make is known for. The Equinox, like the current Accord, has a center stack covered in buttons that are clumped together and hard to distinguish. Some may actually prefer this design once they sort out where everything is, but it’s unintuitive early on, even more so on the Equinox than the Accord. Furthermore, where the Equinox does use knobs, they should have been larger. General Motor’s well-designed “corporate radio” is absent from the Equinox’s dash; it may not have physically fit into the new sharply raked instrument panel.  

Despite this cheapness, the Equinox is on the high end of the class pricewise, at $23,265 without any options added, but it’s nicely-equipped in its base version. Pricing site TrueDelta.com puts the Equinox’s sticker price within $180 of a comparably-equipped RAV4 or Honda CR-V’s. (There are many more discounts available for those two and for most other small SUVs, however, as the Equinox is just now appearing on dealer lots.)

However, more than other small mainstream SUVs, the Equinox has the refinement to make it feel like a legitimate alternative to a larger, pricier SUV. If ride and quietness matter more to you than interior plastics and you don't need a third-row seat, consider stepping down to the Equinox. 

But even with cheap-feeling interior plastics and an imperfect instrument layout, the new Equinox may be General Motors’ strongest mainstream product. It sets the new compact 4-cylinder SUV standard for quietness and fuel economy; it rides well; it has plenty of space; and it comes with lots of standard safety features. It’s not agile, and the interior is rough around the edges, but unless you’re looking for something sporty or with seating for more than five occupants, the Equinox should be on your SUV shopping list. 

Vehicle tested: 2010 Chevrolet Equinox
Vehicle base price (MSRP): $22,440
Version tested: LS front-wheel-drive
Version base price (MSRP): $22,440
Vehicle price as tested (MSRP): $23,265
Estimated transaction price as tested: $22,500
Test vehicles provided by: Criswell Chevrolet of Gaithersburg, Md.

Key specifications: 
Length: 187.8 inches
Width: 72.5 inches
Height: 66.3 inches
Wheelbase: 112.5 inches
Weight: 3,929 pounds
Cargo room behind rear seat: 31.4 cubic feet
Cargo room behind front seats: 63.7 cubic feet
Turning radius: 20.0 feet
Engine (as tested): 2.4-liter I4 with 182 horsepower
Transmission: 6-speed automatic
EPA city mileage: 22 miles per gallon
EPA highway mileage: 32 miles per gallon
EPA mixed driving: 26 miles per gallon